Platform for the production of seamless orthographic imagery

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for the production of seamless, geo-referenced orthographic images that can comprise a composite of two or more underlying images. Illustratively, an exemplary image processing environment comprises an image processing engine and an instruction set comprising at least one instruction to instruct the image processing engine to process data representative of two or more images. Illustratively, the two or more images can comprise data representative of correspondence points between the two or more images and the underlying area (e.g., ground control points). Illustratively, the exemplary image processing engine can identify features that the overlapping photos have in common (e.g., feature match points) and place and re-project (e.g., distort) each of the two or more images to achieve a selected balance of correct position (e.g., based on ground control points) and seamless overlap (e.g., based on feature match points) which can be composited into a single image.

1 . A system allowing the generation of seamless orthogonal images, comprising:
 an imagery engine operative to receive data representative of two or more images;   an instruction set comprising at least one instruction to instruct the imagery engine to process the data according to a selected image processing paradigm,
 wherein the selected image processing paradigm employs correspondence points and overlapping features among the two or more images to identify one or more overlapping image portions used to create one or more composite images of the two or more received images. 
   
   
   
       2 . The system as recited in  claim 1 , further comprising a data store operatively coupled to the imager engine comprising data representative of one or more images. 
   
   
       3 . The system as recited in  claim 1 , wherein the two or more images comprise data of true geographic coordinates. 
   
   
       4 . The system as recited in  claim 3 , wherein the true geographic coordinates are deployed by the imagery engine during image processing to generate one or more correspondence points. 
   
   
       5 . The system as recited in  claim 1 , wherein the correspondence points are received by the imager engine as input from participating user. 
   
   
       6 . The system as recited in  claim 1 , wherein the image processing paradigm comprises one or more instructions to reduce visible seams. 
   
   
       7 . The system as recited in  claim 6 , wherein the imagery engine is operative to reduce visible seams by automatic feature matching between the overlapping portions of the two or more images. 
   
   
       8 . The system as recited in  claim 6 , wherein the imagery engine is operative to reduce visible seams by balancing/normalizing color among the two or more images. 
   
   
       9 . The system as recited in  claim 6 , wherein the imagery engine is operative to reduce visible seams by identifying a selected visible feature among the two or more images. 
   
   
       10 . The system as recited in  claim 1 , wherein the one or more composite images are produces as image tiles. 
   
   
       11 . A method to generate seamless orthogonal images comprising:
 receiving data representative of two or more images;   identifying one or more correspondence points among the two or more images;   identifying one or more feature matches among the two or more images; and   generating one or more composite images using the identified correspondence points and feature map data.   
   
   
       12 . The method as recited in  claim 11 , further comprising applying one or more techniques to reduce visible seams in the generated one or more composite images. 
   
   
       13 . The method as recited in  claim 11 , further comprising receiving data representative of correspondence points regarding the two or more images. 
   
   
       14 . The method as recited in  claim 11 , further comprising generating one or more composite images as image tiles. 
   
   
       15 . The method as recited in  claim 11 , further comprising re-projecting the two or more images into one or more composite image using the identified one or more correspondence points and one or more feature matches. 
   
   
       16 . The method as recited in  claim 11 , further comprising generating other correspondence points based on identified correspondence points. 
   
   
       17 . The method as recited in  claim 11 , further comprising receiving geo-referenced data regarding the two or more images. 
   
   
       18 . The method as recited in  claim 17 , further comprising processing the received geo-referenced data in combination with the identified correspondence points and feature matches to generate the one or more composite images. 
   
   
       19 . The method as recited in  claim 11 , further comprising trimming the two or more images to generate the one or more composite images. 
   
   
       20 . A computer-readable medium having computer executable instructions to instruct a computing environment to perform a method comprising:
 receiving data representative of two or more images;
 identifying one or more correspondence points among the two or more images; 
 identifying one or more feature matches among the two or more images; and 
 generating one or more composite images using the identified correspondence points and feature map data.